Missouri couple sues doctors for separating baby’s head during grisly botched birth, and trying to cover it up: reports

Arteisha Betts and Travis Ammonette, of Florissant, Mo., claimed their son, Kaden Travis Ammonette, died during birth after the delivering doctor separated his head from his neck. (Facebook)

A Missouri obstetrician separated a baby's head from his body during delivery and then shoved the newborn back into the mother and performed an emergency C-section to cover up the ghastly blunder, a couple claims in a lawsuit.

Arteisha Betts and Travis Ammonette, of Florissant, filed a 10-count complaint in St. Louis County Circuit Court last month claiming doctors wrongly pushed them to have a vaginal delivery, decapitated their son and then tried to cover it up, according to local Patch and Courthouse News Service.

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The details of the couple's claim are horrifying.

During a February 2011 appointment, the couple claimed, Dr. Susan Moore told them their baby boy would have to be delivered by caesarian because his abdomen was too large for a normal birth, according the CNS report.

Betts went into labor on March 22, just 28 weeks into what is normally a 40-week pregnancy.

The delivering doctor at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Gilbert Webb, refused to perform a C-section and "would only agree to deliver her baby by way of attempted trial of vaginal delivery," the complaint said, according to Patch.

'Our sons (sic) handprints,' Betts wrote in a post on her Facebook page. (Facebook)

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'Our sons (sic) handprints,' Betts wrote in a post on her Facebook page.

Webb refused to allow them to go to a different hospital, and "Betts consented to a trial of vaginal delivery under duress and protest," the complaint said.

During the birth, the boy's head breached, but the rest of his body got stuck in the birth canal, the complaint said.